This week's Journal will cover most of the visits made by The Under 40's on Friday 27th February 2015 - final visits on Friday and Saturday 27th/28th February will be reported in the Journal for 20th March.
Friday 27th February - PCFruit; Sint-Truiden (Belgium)
The research unit carries out projects to gather knowledge and develop solutions for problems facing fruit growers both now and in the future. The four main areas of expertise are ecology, mycology, pomology and zoology. The research station also has Experimental Gardens for top and stone fruit and strawberries and small fruits.
The top and stone fruit garden is the official Belgian experimental garden for apples, pears and cherries and among other activities carries out demonstrative trials for professional fruit growers.
During our visit we were given an overview of the work that the research station carries out by Dr.Jef Vercammen - Director of Top & Stone Fruit.
The business unit "two" (toegepast wetenschappelijk onderzoek) or applied scientific research grew from the strong fundamentals created by 50 years of expertise at the Gorsem Research Station. pcfruit npa has a track record of 70 years experience in research & development, demonstration and advice on most aspects of fruit production.
PCfruit sphere of operations
The list of objectives cover a myriad of research elements. Under the areas of Plant protection products - Plant nutrition and Variety testing; pcfruit research best practice for a broad spectrum of elements critical to improving product efficacy - these include - soil - root-stocks - varieties - crop protectants - irrigation - tree management (including mechanical pruning) - machinery - technical education - software development - diagnostics and communication with growers.
While all the 'expected' popular fruits are grown in Belgium and specifically in the Flanders region, Pears dominate Belgian fruit production;
Belgium (like Holland) grows more pears than apples; the statistics demonstrate that Conference pears dominate Belgian pear production with 85.9% of the pear area and new plantings representing 93% Conference. Apple production is dominated by Jonagold and Jonagored (a more highly coloured Jonagold clone) with 61.6% of all apples grown.
The variety profile is quite different to what we are accustomed to in the UK where Gala, Braeburn and Cox still dominate; of the current Belgian 'top five' only (imported) Golden Delicious would be a regular on UK Supermarket shelves. Jonagold does play a part in UK supply, but normally only as a 'cheap ticket' and often imported from Poland or Germany.
Conference is as one would expect, the dominant pear in Belgium and UK. While we only grow 20% of our home consumption, Belgium's Conference pear sales are dominated by exports.
We also visited their Conference Pear trials where different pruning systems are being compared. The systems are based on ideas from individual pear growers and vary from Palmette's to Vee systems.
Of particular interest to UK growers, where attempts to increase pear production are beginning to 'sow seeds of hope' the work carried out by pcfruit into planting systems is of great significance; of course the trials are very important to Belgian growers as they seek to increase production & cost efficacy.
From the moment of planting all costs and labour were recorded and expressed per ha. To enable a precise comparison, the costs and labour of one planting and pruning system (the bush-spindle shape on Quince Adams with a planting distance of 3.50 x 1.50 m) were fixed at 100 %.
All trees are on Quince Adams root-stock
The spraying scheme is the same, except for fruit set.
No chemical growth control.
No irrigation.
The Bush-spindle is the most common pear system used in Belgium
The following systems are included in the test:
Hedge of Tienen (Palmette)
Planting distance: 3.50 x 1.50 m (1714 trees/ha)
2-year old well branched trees
Long pruning
Planting distance: 3.50 x 1.50 m (1714 trees/ha)
2-year old trees with 1 leader and 2 side branches
Bush-spindle shape
Planting distance: 3.50 x 1.50 m (1714 trees/ha)
2-year old well branched trees
Candlestick system
Planting distance: 3.50 x 1.50 m (1714 trees/ha)
2-year old well branched trees
V-system
Planting distance: 3.20 x 1.00 m (2813 trees/ha)
2-year old well branched trees with 4 equal branches
Spindle trees
Planting distance: 3.20 x 0.50 m (5625 trees/ha)
1-year old trees
"Drapeau" system
Planting distance: 3.50 x 1.75 m (1469 trees/ha)
2-year old well branched trees
Trees were planted under an angle of 45°
Costs and labour
From the moment of planting all costs and labour were recorded and expressed per ha. To enable a precise comparison, the costs and labour of one planting and prun-ing system (the bush-spindle shape on Quince Adams with a planting distance of 3.50 x 1.50 m) were fixed at 100 %.
Below left; Hedge of Tienen (Palmette) - Below right; Drapeau
Below left; Vee system - Below right: Candlestick system
Other focuses of the station include research into spray regimes. This includes areas such as the production of high quality fruit with minimum applications, biological controls and looking into new crop protection methods.
Click on PCFruit to explore the full extent of the research.
Presentation by Florent Geerdens of Rene Nicolai tree nursery
Rene Nicolai fruit tree nursery is a well-established national and international company in the global fruit industry. The fruit tree nursery has an annual production of approximately 1,200,000 root-stocks and 1,000,000 fruit trees of which 70% are apple trees, 20% pear trees and 10% cherry trees. These are supplied to the majority of European countries and further afield.
Rene Nicolai started his business in 1925 at Sint - Truiden; in 1945 Rene started producing M9 root-stocks and by 1969/70 the company started to export fruit trees. In 1982 Florent Geerdens joined the Rene Nicolai company, and in 2002 Florent led a management buyout.
Their own selection and production of M9 clones is famous throughout the world. In the United States their M9 selections, clone 8, clone 19 and clone 29 are protected by the plant patents Nic®8, Nic®19 and Nic®29. These are also the most successful M9 clones in the USA.
Rene Nicolai are constantly developing and introducing innovations in the area of products,
processes and service and the company strives to remain one step ahead of its competitors.
Examples of recently introduced innovations include:
- Development of new varieties;
- Implementation of a complete pallet
system for internal and external
logistics; and
- Installation of new misting equipment
in cold stores.
Below left: Lifting root-stocks is a mechanised operation - Below right: lifting trees from the nursery is also a mechanical task
Click to visit Rene Nicolai website
Presentation by Inge de Wit of Better 3 Fruit
Better 3 Fruit are a Belgian fruit breeding company that began in 2000 following the partnership between the Catholic University of Leuven and the Belgian tree nursery Johan Nicolai.
Over the past 25 years it has grown to become a commercial programme producing one or more new apple varieties almost every year. Their original customer base of nurseries and growers associations has now grown to include major fruit trading houses and supermarket chains.
Varieties that the company have bred include Zari, Nicoter, Kanzi, Zonga and Nicogreen - Greenstar.
In the UK - Clive Goatham had the foresight to purchase the licence for ZARI and the apple he describes as the best apple he has eaten, has become a fixture in Sainsburys who have exclusivity for marketing ZARI.
Breeding new varieties with commercial appeal is difficult and needs a dedicated approach; deciding on a variety to take forward for consumer tasting and acceptance is just the first step.
From the breeder the route to market passes through the tree nursery - the growers cooperative - wholesalers - retailers and consumers, with acceptance required at each stage before a new variety can be commercially successful.
Click on Better3fruit to visit their website
Below; Gert Peeters and Leen Jolling with (right) Harriet Roberts U40's Secretary
Presentations by Gert Peeters and Leen Jolling of The Green Circle / Borenbond
Gert is the President of Groene Kring (The Green Circle) which is the Belgian U35 Fruit Growers
organisation. Leen is a member of The Green Circle and also works for Borenbond, which is a Farmers Union that aims to promote a vibrant and sustainable agricultural sector in Belgium.
Boerenbond defends the interests of farmers and fruit growers, provides training and education, provides representation in all kinds of structures and has an extensive service for farmers and fruit growers.
In each sector, there are consultants to support them. Leen is one of the employees of Boerenbond and defends the interests of the fruit growers.
The top fruit sector in Belgium has come under pressure this year with the impact of the Russian embargo on imports from the EU; Belgium has a history of exporting top fruit to Russia and Poland has been heavily dependent on exports to Russia. Boerenbond supports Belgian fruit growers as they seek new markets.
Below left: Fruit growers are an important contributor to Belgian gdp. Below right; The Russian embargo has undermined Poland's exports.
The 2015 Under 40's Conference covered many important aspects of modern fruit production; in next week's Journal - The English Apple Man will cover the remaining visits made on Friday 27th and Saturday 28th February.
The supplies of English grown apples are reducing in variety, but there is still some high quality fruit to be found. Just last week The English Apple Man bought; Cox, Braeburn, Bramley and Envy in Waitrose and this week Organic Spartan in Sainsburys caught my eye.
The eating quality of all the samples was very good, with the Envy my personal favourite, with superb texture (even after a week in the fruit bowl) and the Organic Spartan had excellent texture and taste 'even after 6 months in store'
Below left: English Braeburn 'crunchy and juicy' - Below right: English Cox 'crisp and tasty'
Below left: English Envy 'sweet, crisp and juicy' - Below right: English Organic Spartan 'very crisp and juicy'
That's all for this week..........
Take care
The English Apple Man